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A quarter of men in some parts of Asia admit to rape

A gang rape and murder of a 20-year-old student sparked protests across in India

(Image: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty)

By Andy Coghlan

Following the high-profile conviction of four men in Delhi, India, for the rape of a student on a bus, a new study reveals how widespread sexual violence is in some parts of Asia.

A tenth of 10,000 Asian men questioned admitted to raping a woman other than a partner. Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea emerged as possibly the world’s most dangerous place for women – nearly 27 per cent of men quizzed there admitted such rapes. At 3 per cent, Bangladesh was the lowest of the six countries studied, which also included China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Cambodia.

The overall figure for those countries rose to a quarter when rape of a partner was included.

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The results, out this week, are an invaluable guide to factors motivating rape, says study author Emma Fulu of Partners for Prevention, a UN programme to tackle gender-based violence. “It’s the first time we’ve spoken to men themselves, and it enables us to get at the underlying causes of violence, and how we can prevent it in the future,” she says.

Unhealthy attitude

Of those who had raped, 58 per cent first did so in their teens, suggesting that interventions during adolescence could be most valuable for prevention. Many had witnessed or experienced abuse in childhood, been raped themselves, or had a history of abusing their own partners. Alcohol was a factor in 27 per cent of rapes, and many of those who had raped also said they had paid for sex or were promiscuous.

“It really highlights the need to work with younger boys in adolescence to change their attitudes to consent and healthy relationships, and these other underlying factors that contribute to sexual violence,” says Fulu, who also co-authored a summary of the findings launched this week by Partners for Prevention.

Education programmes

Scott Berkowitz of the US Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network agrees with that approach. “People begin committing these acts while quite young, so education programmes need to target them,” he said.

The research also revealed the influence of cultural norms legitimising violence within marriage and gender inequality more generally. Three-quarters of those who’d raped said they felt sex was their “entitlement”, for example. “They felt they had the right to have sex with women regardless of their consent,” says Fulu. Nearly 60 per cent said they did it for “entertainment”, and a third to punish their partners.

Fulu says it will take years to change attitudes, but programmes already exist, such as the Men Care campaign launched by Promundo, a Brazilian charity, to convince youngsters that “real men” are those who are great fathers and caring and respectful partners. “Questioning norms of masculinity is a definite factor for intervention,” she says. “The data do hold hope because they point us towards strategies to create change.”